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The International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) was last week invited to the Working Group on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships under the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) in Brussels last week.

Ian Adams, Chief Executive, was in attendance on behalf of IBIA members to listen and contribute to the European Commission's (EC) preparation of the European Union's (EU) climate policy.

The EC have been requested by the European Council and Parliament to come forward with a proposal to include international maritime emissions in the EU's reduction commitment should there be no sufficient international agreement addressing these emissions through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and/or the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC), by the end of December 2011.

This first meeting, of which there will be another two, opened up the discussion to stakeholders and member states about monitoring, scope and enforcement in relation to emissions.

IBIA at this stage said it was in agreement with other stakeholders that a global agreement/policy would be preferable to a regional EU policy. IBIA added that it remained neutral on discussions at this time until it was able to gauge the direction the discussions were taking at later meetings.

Future topics to discuss include maintaining and enhancing competitiveness, evasion and the use of revenues from market-based measures.